Marlette routed by Cass City

Marlette’s Dillen Cook moves the ball up the field against Cass City on Friday. Photo by Marc Wilson CASS CITY – Marlette football took a beating as it fell to Cass City 40-14 on Friday. Cass City grabbed an 8-7 lead in the first and pulled away in the second half to lead 28-7 by halftime.

Cass City struck first when it grabbed an 8-0 lead with 4:23 remaining in the first, but Marlette responded just a minute later when Dillen Cook ran back a touchdown for 63 yards for an 8-7 score. Marlette then added three touchdowns in the second for a 28-7 lead at half.

In the third, Cass City added its fourth unanswered touchdown at 6:38 to take the score to 34-7. Marlette didn’t find the end zone again until 11:00 in the fourth when Brett Havens ran in a 2-yard carry. Cass City’s Jarod Naegele then closed out the scoring effort at 6:47 on a 14-yard carry for the 40-14 final.

“Cass City really did a great job tonight of controlling the ball,” said Marlette coach Denny Lester. “Cuthrell was just unreal. We couldn’t do anything with him. He controlled the game. He is a great player. I thought early in the game we were doing a nice job defensively. We just couldn’t get a stop when we needed it. They wore us down.

“Offensively, we just could not find any rhythm. Credit Cass City for that. We only ran 13 play in the first half. It was frustrating. We can’t do anything else about tonight. We just need to get to work this week and get ready for Memphis,” Lester concluded.

Marlette’s Peyton Dale was 3-of-10 for 35 yards. Cook put up 127 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. Haven added 27 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Havens also reeled in three passes for 35 yards.